The tragedy of Benghazi is like catnip to the House Republicans and their propaganda arm known as Fox News. They have been flogging this story since Ambassador Susan Rice repeated redacted talking points on all the Sunday shows. An ambassador and an aide died in the conflagration, yet the GOP's focus of inquiry has been on the reporting about the attack. Republicans accuse the administration of a "political cover-up," claiming the president's staff manipulated talking points regarding Benghazi in order to influence the 2012 election. In return, the White House released a hundred pages of emails which show the CIA was responsible for the blather, which was then edited by someone in the State Department trying to make the agency look better than it deserved. Hillary Clinton's now famous eruption of, "What difference at this point does it make," in response to questions concerning terrorist involvement in the Benghazi attack have been turned into a GOP ringtone in preparation for the 2016 elections. The remainder of her statement; "It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from happening again," was forgotten in the ensuing hysteria.
The IRS targeting of Tea Party groups requesting tax exemption is inexcusable and illegal and deserving of the "heads will roll" attitude of the administration. The IRS acting director, Steve Miller, got dumped. I expected him to sing "Take the Money and Run," upon his departure, but I'm showing my age again. As long as I am, however, I well remember the IRS being used as a political weapon by Richard Nixon and his crewe. What's galling is that these political hit squads, both left and right, are supposed to be "social welfare" organizations that help to inform the electorate about the candidates, before they get their tax exempt status. After the IRS grants that status, the groups are free from reporting on their donors or the amount they spend. Ironically, the IRS flagged smaller Tea Party organizations for scrutiny while giving the big fish a pass. Karl Rove's American Crossroads super pac spent over 100 million dollars with such tax-free status, and none of it was for "social welfare." The politicization of the IRS still reflects the fact that Democrats can be as petty and ruthless as their counterparts and more firings are in order. The harassment of right-wing groups seeking a tax exemption, however, does not rise to the level of Rep. Michele Bachmann's accusations that Obama used the IRS to steal the election.
While the media focuses its attention on the IRS screw-up, the most egregious of the scandals is the covert collection of phone records from the Associated Press. Now we're into Nixon territory, and should the Justice Department's national security concerns fail to persuade, then Eric Holder has got to go. I understand he was personally questioned in regards to the AP matter and has thus recused himself from the investigations. Holder claims his Deputy ordered the harvesting of personal records from AP phone lines. There are other ways of obtaining information than breaking the law. The surreptitious collection of AP phone records could compromise the integrity of their sources and discourage whistleblowers from coming forth in the future. Associated Press CEO, Gary Pruitt, claimed the seizure of reporters' phone records "unconstitutional," and said the organization is considering legal action against the Justice Department. I don't hold many allegiances, but my first is to journalism. Earning that degree took a good deal of study, and much of it was about the constitutional protection of free expression. I believe the trampling of the 1st Amendment right of a free press by the Justice Department deserves the resignation of the Attorney General. Whether the AG is John Mitchell, Janet Reno, or Alberto Gonzales, when they skirt the law they were sworn to uphold, they become a drag on the presidency, and a negative representation of his government.
I don't understand the Republicans. They claim to be the party of family values with a special emphasis on marriage and fidelity. This president is a wonderful father and role model, faithful to his wife, without a hint of scandal, and yet they hate him so much. The zeal with which the Republicans are attempting to prove that Obama was the Svengali that micro-managed every crisis reminds me of the GOP's inquisition of Bill Clinton. By portraying Clinton as Satan, the GOP managed to obfuscate his real transgressions and ultimately turn the tide of public opinion in his favor. Recent polling indicates that Barack Obama's popularity has remained steady despite the shitstorm of conservative abuse. These "scandals" will consume Obama's presidency only because of political posturing by the Republicans, and ultimately they won't amount to much. Watergate was a scandal. Teapot Dome was a scandal. These are merely the bumblings of bureaucratic zealots, but the poisonous wing of the Republican party is already talking impeachment. It didn't have to be this way, but Obama's legislative agenda has been hijacked by a witches' brew of controversies. What a waste of talent.
13 comments:
I was going to request Miller sing the Joker. Anyway you are starting to see the true nature of the man. The reason his poll rating is steady just shows his staff are doing their jobs which is to deflect blame from Obama. As far as his legislative agenda he acheived more than you admit. He got more stimulus, raised taxes and rammed Obama care through.
Randy you are starting to wake up. You might want to check out this story by CBS news about one of 4 people put on administration leave over Bengahzi. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57585223/benghazi-disciplined-diplomat-a-prolific-poet/
Randy has been awake all along. He may be saying something now that sounds sweet to the radical right doofusses, but it is only because it has parts that fit the only template their brain is programmed to recognize. Haspel has something the robots of the right wing don't: intellectual agility.
Oh you are going to to play that card? That's getting old Clyde.
In regard to Benghazi, the GOP's focus is upon questions such as why did the State Dept. not heed the ambassador's pleading for more security, why close-by military units were told to stand down rather than to attack the terrorists, and why the bogus attempt to deflect blame for the attack on some goofy video. Hillary should suffer some blow-back in 2016 for being part of that lie, farce, and disaster, but I don't ever underestimate the abysmal ignorance and gullibility of the American electorate. Any honest person should be able to smell a rat in regard to the Benghazi scandal. Obama is hated by the Right because his regime has consistently done things to harm the American economy, to weaken America's global influence, and generally speaking, to move us further toward socialism, but Bush was just a mini-Obama. The Obama Regime is basically either incredibly incompetent, or worse, a leftist criminal enterprise. And, I will admit that George Bush was almost as bad. In fact, Bush is a snake in the grass and needs to be exposed even more for that. How come Obama is so ignorant of what is going on within his own administration? The Democrats themselves are beginning to criticize him. For instance, a number of Democrats are beginning to say publically say that Obamacare will be a train wreck. I'll bet that lots of Democrats will abandon ship during Obama's second term in order to save themselves politically from such a disastrous administration. On the other hand, my mind is blown that you would ever cast any aspersions on your beloved Democrats or manage to say anything of an honest nature in regard to criticizing them. Maybe you are beginning to wake up like Alan says. It is painful to admit that one has been wrong in regard to his most cherished delusions. For that I give you a 'smiley face'. Keep waking up. I was once a committed liberal zombie. It is wonderful to get that stench off of me.
One more thing...I am not a Republican, even though I especially despise Democrats. Both political parties are largely made up of lying, double-dealing, power hungry sons-of-bitches. They are only concerned with their own power, the people be damned. Of course, they have to play like they are public servants, but most of them are white-collar criminals. Most of them leave Washington as multi-millionaires. I read an article once by a psychiatrist who did a study which showed that the personality profiles of the common criminal and politicians were quite similar. It is the common tax paying citizens who suffer under these satanic bastards, and that includes plenty of Republicans. If Jeb Bush runs in 2016, I won't vote for the first time in my life. The Bushes are all wolves in sheep's clothing. They are all in league with the globalists and have most conservatives completely fooled. I can thank Sput for the beginnings of having my Bush delusions dispelled. He was as bad as Sput said, only for different reasons.
Sput, why do you continually bleat about Fox News being an arm of the Republican Party while the preponderance of mainstream media is so pro-Obama? Will you not allow conservatives any voice at all? Are you one of the leftists who want to silence everyone who does not believe as you do? That is the way that it seems.
2 or 3 years ago, I commented here. that to live up to your name Born-Again Hippies you have to always question the people in power. That means Republicans or Democrats. The problem is the power not the party. Remember what it was like when Watergate was a small story. It took almost 9 months for it to gather steam. Did Obama ask the IRS to do this. I contend he did not have to. Just listen to some of his speeches where he practically begs for more scrutiny of organization on the right. Abuse of power is the biggest danger this country has. You have to stay vigilant to who ever is in power. That is why we have the 4 pillars of our country Executive, Legislative, Judicial and Free Press.
To anon: Is that you, Sal? Anyway, thoroughly enjoyed this blog entry and comments. From my eyes, too, some former Obama supporters are turning away from him. It is now OK to be critical. Sainthood is looking less likely. Meanwhile, heaven help any of us should be need serious medical care in the years to come.
Alan is right, as always. Government is raw power. This is why there is separation of powers and checks and balances within the Constitution in order to prevent the abuse of this raw power. However, ever since the Teddy Roosevelt administration Progressives, both Democrat and Republican have circumvented the Constitution, weakened it, bastardized it until now about the only thing that politicians do is use it when it serves their purposes, otherwise, they use it for butt wipe. Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings said recently that just about everything that is done in Washington is unconstitutional. I was stunned to hear a Democrat telling the truth about such a serious matter. The current U.S. federal government is 1000 times as tyrannical as King George's England was. Basically it is a criminal enterprise and has been for some time. The examples that could be used to verify this claim are countless. For instance, it is now known that the Viet Nam War was a false flag war from the time of the contrived Gulf of Tonkin incident. So was the attack on Pearl Harbor. FDR enticed the Japs to attack and knew well in advance that the attack was coming. It gave him power and support to enter WWII. It goes on and on. Recently it was discovered that Dianne Feinstein's husband's real estate firm was awarded the contract to sell 56 buildings that were used as post offices. He will make 6% commission off of each sale and this will allow him to make tens of millions off of property that was paid for by the American taxpayer. This kind of crap goes on and on by the criminals in both parties. Like I said, government is raw power and when it is turned upon the citizenry very bad things happen. It is all downhill from here. This criminal juggernaut will not be stopped and we will eventually kiss our constitutional liberties goodbye. It's just a matter of time. This situation will evolve regardless of which party is in charge.
Alan, to call America's mainstream media a pillar of our country is now a sick joke. It is now an arm of leftist propaganda and has little or nothing to do with holding the government accountable. It now colludes with the government to keep the American electorate misinformed and to cover up government evil. The fox is in charge of the henhouse. The entire federal government, the Executive, Congress, and the judiciary, especially the Supreme Court, are a tightly knit cabal who are NOT looking out for the people, but rather are questing for ever more power, control, and wealth at the American citizenry's expense. It will get much, much worse. Those of you who worship at the altar of government as the solution to every problem need to wake up. You are feeding a monster.
The Obama Administration is, top to bottom, a leftist criminal enterprise. I predict that they will get away with everything, that co-criminal and pernicious liar, necromancer, etc., Hillary Clinton will be elected as the next felon-in chief, and that America will reap disaster as a consequence of our government's criminality. The barbarians are slavering at the gates, waiting to lay us waste as soon as we become weak enough. But, this is just what the Left wants...a dead America so that their dreams of a world government can be realized. Now what could possibly go wrong with that? I further predict that a world dictator who will make Hitler look like a choir boy will arise. And then the Left will go down with everyone else. What half-way intelligent world dictator will want proven, lying snake traitors on his planet? They could wind up being a threat to him. Useful idiots will meet the same end as the unuseful ones.
Dear Anonymous, I always wonder from where you receive your rather vague and slightly twisted ideas regarding private property and government. Please see what you think of the following essay about the social costs of capitalism:
When I was a graduate student in economics, the social cost of capitalism was a big issue in economic theory. Since those decades ago, the social costs of capitalism have exploded, but the issue seems no longer to trouble the economics profession.
Social costs are costs of production that are not born by the producer or included in the price of the product. There are many classic examples: the pollution of air, water, and land from mining, fracking, oil drilling and pipeline spills, chemical fertilizer farming, GMOs, pesticides, radioactivity released from nuclear accidents, and the the pollution of food by antibiotics and artificial hormones.
for the balance of the article:
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2013/05/30/the-social-cost-of-capitalism-paul-craig-roberts/
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